Plan Your Trip Times Picks

Q and A; Garden Tours

By STANLEY CARR

Published: November 6, 1988

Question: At this early stage, is it possible to discover which groups, with a serious interest in horticulture, are arranging garden tours overseas - and particularly Britain - next spring and summer? - J. L. S., Alexandria, Va. Answer: Plans are already well advanced among some organizations, and are tentative among others. Here is a brief selection: One tour company that specializes in gardens and has itineraries set up for three trips in 1989 is Serendipity Tours, 3 Channing Circle, Cambridge, Mass. 02138 (617-354-1879). The Garden Country is the title of one tour, scheduled for England from May 8 to 23. The first week will be spent visiting sites in the Cotswolds; in the second, participants have the choice of touring either Sussex and Kent or Wiltshire and Dorset. Two landscape designers will lead the tour, priced at $3,500 a person, including trans-Atlantic air fare, accommodations and all meals. A two-week tour of castles and gardens in Scotland is set for Sept. 12 at a cost of $4,200, including air fare. It will be led by a historian and a landscape architect. The Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is sponsoring a Serendipity tour to forests and gardens in northern California from May 23 to June 5, and it will be led by the arboretum's director, Timothy Storbeck. The price of $2,450 does not include air fare. The Canterbury Cathedral Trust in America, which is based in Washington (202-328-8788), is co-sponsoring a tour of Canterbury and English gardens with English Homes and Country Tours, a British company. The 13-day program starts June 7 and includes visits to Sissinghurst, Warwick Castle, the Cotswolds and Bath. The price of $2,610 includes accommodations, all meals and drinks at private homes but not air fare. Ten percent of the tour cost is a contribution to the trust and is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The address of English Homes and Country Tours is Coombe House, Mayfield, East Sussex TN20 6QA, England (telephone, 435 872097).

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden (718-622-4433) plans a garden tour in England and Wales next July but has yet to complete arrangements. The New York Botanic Garden (212-220-8736) is arranging a trip to Britain and Ireland for June that will include some travel by a chartered yacht.

Missouri Botanical Gardens (Post Office Box 299, St. Louis, Mo. 63166; 314-577-5100) says that its two-week visit to Ecuador next Feb. 17 will appeal to adventurous horticulturists. It includes three days at a biological station. The price, including round-trip air fare from Miami to Quito, is $2,139. San Diego Question: A television program about San Diego showed a picture safari that can be taken for about $70 a person. Whom can I contact to make a reservation? - S. W., Whitestone, Queens Answer: Photo caravans, as they are called, are held at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego as a preservation area for endangered species. The caravans are scheduled only between May and September, on Wednesday and Saturday, although the park (619-747-8702) is open the year round. The 1,800-acre park, where more than 2,000 animals from Africa and Asia roam, is in Escondido, about 35 miles north of San Diego. Participants on the caravans ride on a flatbed truck that takes them close to giraffes, rhinoceroses, impalas, gazelles, Cape buffaloes and other animals.

There are three versions of the excursion. One covers animals of East Africa and the Asian plains; another, South Africa and the Asian waterhole. Both last one and threequarter hours and cost $50 and $35 for children. A third version takes in all four elements, lasts three and a half hours and costs $75, $50 for children. Slide Sources Question: Some of our 35-millimeter slides from various overseas trips did not come out well. Where can I buy replacement slides? - B. W., Farmington, Mo. Answer: The largest selection is claimed by Worldwide Slides, 7427 Washburn Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minn. 55423 (612-869-6482), which publishes a 40-page catalogue of its thousands of sets of color travel slides from around the world. The catalogue costs $1. The company is now expanding its offerings after buying a library of negatives from the ViewMaster Corporation.

Worldwide charges from $2 to $4.50 for sets of five or six slides. Another catalogue (also $1) lists three-dimensional slides, or disks, that are seen through a viewer. A packet of three disks costs $3.

Another source is Visual Horizons, 180 Metro Park, Rochester, N.Y. 14623 (716-424-5300), which has about 80 sets of nature and travel slides, including some on cities at home and abroad. They cost $19.95 for a set of 20. The 48-page catalogue, which is aimed primarily at people who need illustrations for making presentations at sales meetings, is free. Visual Horizons also has about 50 videocassettes (Beta or VHS) at $39.95 each, including some advising on outdoor pursuits like canoeing and walking in the wilderness, others on cities, among them Washington and New Orleans. Single Rates Question: Can you explain the single supplement? Now that I am a widower, I am confused as to what I am paying for when this supplement is tacked onto my bill. - C. J. V., Wantagh, L.I. Answer: The term single supplement is usually applied when a single traveler takes a package tour or cruise; single rate is the term for the price charged a single hotel guest, who usually pays considerably more than half the double rate. Generally travel is geared to people traveling together - they are the majority - and it's more profitable for a hotel to let a room to two for $100 than to one for $75. That is why hotels and motels always negotiate with tour groups on the basis of double occupancy; their thinking is that they are offering a room at a discount if they rent it to one person instead of two. They also make more money in other ways - in the restaurant or bar, for example - when rooms are fully occupied. For these reasons, the single traveler is often given a less desirable room.

Book FlightsBook A HotelRent A CarBook A CruiseBook A PackageBook An Activity